Exclusive consumer research into factors that influence guests when choosing where to eat and drink out
As the cost-of-living crisis continues to squeeze consumer spending and budgets are more closely scrutinised, many guests are opting to leave the decision-making process for which venue to visit, to someone they trust.
These trusted ‘influencer’ consumers represent a significant opportunity for hospitality businesses able to convert them from regular guests into brand champions. But who are these ‘influencers’? What are their hospitality habits? And what do they look for when choosing a venue to visit for their friends, families and networks?
Produced in partnership with CGA by NielsenIQ and DataHawks, we surveyed 5,000 UK hospitality consumers to find out.
What's in the report?
- Who are the ‘influencers’, and how often do they eat/drink out?
- Where do guests get their knowledge from when choosing a venue to visit?
- The role of trust and recommendations in influencing guest behaviour
- The key influences behind consumers’ decision-making
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Watch: Booking platforms: Back to Basics
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Watch: 2023 hotel guest trends to help you maximise revenue
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With the cost-of-living crisis and acute staffing shortages putting pressure on operators to cut costs, a powerful EPoS system can be the key to unlocking additional profits and helping you to reduce operational overheads across your business.
From a built-in stock module that comes as standard, providing you with tighter control of your stock levels, optimising your margins, and reducing wastage, to increasing efficiencies by automating manual processes, Zonal’s EPoS is the ultimate powerhouse for managing your hospitality business.
To help give you an idea of the kind of extra profit and savings you could uncover with Zonal’s EPoS, we’ve put together this free, easy-to-use online calculator tool, based on the typical savings we see our customers making, every day.
Use the calculator to discover:
- How many hours you could be saving by automating processes
- How much money you could save with improved stock auditing processes
- How much extra margin you could achieve
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Watch: Embracing the future of hospitality tech
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Webinar | Embracing the future of hospitality tech
Throughout 2022, we published four unique pieces of topical research exploring some of the key consumer trends hospitality operators need to be aware of to meet the demands of the modern, digital-savvy consumer.
From how the next generation of hospitality guests view the industry and the demand for personalisation, to how consumers are using social media and search engines to engage with hospitality venues and how they prefer to pay when they do visit pubs, bars and restaurants, the research is packed full of actionable insights you can use to improve your guest experience and boost revenue.
To help you navigate all this great research, Zonal’s Chief Sales & Marketing Officer Olivia FitzGerald explored some of the key findings from across our research this year in this brief 16 minute webinar!
Watch the webinar to discover insights from 5,000 representative consumers, including:
- How consumers are using social media to engage with hospitality venues
- Appetite towards sharing the data required for personalisation
- Top ways customers like to pay
- What the future of hospitality technology might look like
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Research recently released from KAM Media has highlighted that the takeaway and delivery boom is not going anywhere, with 22 million Brits now ordering a takeaway or delivery from a restaurant or pub at least once a week.
Encouragingly, rather than replacing on-trade visits, the survey shows the significant majority – 74% of people – are ordering in to replace cooking at home. Further research from Otter highlighted the opportunities further, citing that Brits on average spend ₤21.29 per delivery order, with the average amount spent increasing throughout the day.
As we all know, many operators had to pivot to at-home dining offers during the pandemic – a move which no doubt saved thousands of businesses. With a cost-of-living crisis on the horizon, the question for hospitality now is: can takeaway and delivery can also get the sector through the next few months and beyond?
The results from CGA’s Hospitality at Home Tracker would suggest so, revealing that demand for takeaway and delivery remained high, even when normal trading resumed, with demand for both up on the same months in 2019. Furthermore, the research shows that a key factor determining the strong performance of restaurants is omnichannel operations – that is, those that have a takeaway, delivery or click and collect arm of the business.
Tech can play a huge part in this – moving online can streamline operations and increase visibility of a brand. For those considering how the takeaway and delivery boom might well help them through the current economic crisis, here are some top tips:
- Make it digital
Even pre-pandemic, the likes of Deliveroo and Uber Eats were popular. In fact, last year our GO Technology research conducted with CGA revealed that in January 2021, nearly a quarter (23%) of consumers said they had ordered deliveries or takeaways from platforms like Deliveroo and Just Eat more often than usual—double the number (11%) who said the same in April 2020 during the first lockdown. With this in mind, operators should consider shifting this element of the business online, to align with consumer behaviour and ensure that their delivery options are visible – especially as competition will be fierce. Don’t make your online ordering options hard for consumers to find!
- Accessibility is key
We know from our own research that customers who order via takeaway and delivery services do so for convenience and speed. In fact, two in five (43%) consumers say they would like to see faster delivery than they currently experience and the KAM research shows that 62% of people would prefer to order direct. Thus, whilst hosting a venue on third-party sites is great for visibility, it is also worthwhile for venues to set up their website to be able to process orders directly. Tech can help businesses and there are plenty of tools available to help businesses process takeaway and delivery orders efficiently and provide a more seamless experience for customers.
- Centralise online orders for complete control
An efficient digital takeaway and delivery system can also be essential in supporting staff on-shift. By offering online ordering to the customers– whether that be via app or website – and it being linked to your EPoS, staff won’t need to spend time on the phone taking orders or having to re-key them into the till. Instead, they can focus on delivering exceptional customer service to customers in-venue. It also avoids errors made from busy staff re-keying in orders taken over the phone.
It is also possible to connect online bookings to back of house tech, to support the kitchen staff in delivering orders in a timely manner. For example, Zonal’s Click and Collect technology and delivery solutions will only show orders to the kitchen team when preparation needs to begin. Instead of simply printing tickets as orders are placed by customers, the system will delay displaying information until it’s actually needed.
For the service to deliver maximum impact, it’s important that you can manage the flow of orders to the kitchen from orders received through online channels at any given time, to ensure the kitchen never gets overwhelmed. If a restaurant is usually particularly busy between 7-8pm, tech enables operators to simply set the system to reduce the number of orders that can be accepted during that time – or stop it all together.
Find out how takeaway, delivery and click-and-collect can boost sales for your business here.
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Watch: How technology can deliver success
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The digital payment methods you need to consider to future-proof your pub or restaurant
Payment methods in hospitality have rapidly changed and continue to do so. Now, customers can pay via app, a tap of their card, or indeed, scrap all of that if they are shopping in an Amazon Go Fresh store, so it is no surprise that we are seeing cash take a back seat in comparison to card payments.
In the hospitality sector, the pandemic proved a catalyst for this shift as proved by our GO Technology report with CGA by NielsenIQ, which found that over three quarters of people (79%) say they have been satisfied or very satisfied with the ease and speed of digital payment. With this in mind, it is important that operators keep up with trending payment methods in order to offer customers the elevated in-venue experiences that they expect.
This new report highlights not just how significant the shift to cashless payments has become but also a surprising willingness for customers to embrace what some might see as unorthodox forms of digital payment methods. From ‘pay-with-your-face’ to ‘just-walk-out’ technology, here are some of the digital payment methods you may want to consider in order to future proof your business.
In-venue apps
18% of consumers frequently use in-venue payment apps when spending time in the trade. In-venue apps were quickly adopted during the pandemic and were a lifeline to many businesses. Now they are commonplace and providing customers with the option to pay via in-venue app has many benefits. Not only does it alleviate customer frustration of having to wait to pay the bill, but research has shown that, customers tend to spend more when eating and drinking out when using apps. Total monthly spend on apps averages at £99.35, against an all-consumer average of £76.47. If customers are pleased with the speed of service on an app, they will be more likely to use it again and again.
- Wearables
Whilst 13% of customers paying with wearables may seem low, this number increases significantly amongst younger adults. For example, a quarter of 18 – 34-year-olds frequently use wearables like smart watches to pay in hospitality venues. As wearable technology gets better and better, we can expect this to further rival mobile as well as cash payments in the future. Having a system in place that can enable customers to pay this way will be important moving forwards as the technology increases in popularity. The key to providing a great experience at the purchasing point of the customer journey is to offer customers a variety of options, allowing them to shape their experience and pay however they wish. Not having certain payment options in place could make a business seem ‘out-of-date’ or ‘out of touch’.
- Just walk-out technology
Consumer interest in new technologies does not stop at ‘wearables’. In fact, our research showed much more willingness than we might have perhaps expected to use new forms of technology that will ease the payment experience. For example, one of the most popular new technology options were digital IDs, with 33% interested, and ‘invisible’ payments or just walk-out technology with 31% of respondents expressing an interest. Unsurprisingly perhaps, out of these the numbers, the amount of 18- to 34-year-olds who found such innovation appealing is at least twice as high as those in the 55+ bracket, indicating the need for operators to cater to a younger crowd and adapting to trends sooner rather than later.
While cash and card are still viable payment methods – and are options we don’t see disappearing completely just yet – there is clearly an interest amongst consumers to have forms of payment that make their customer journey more efficient, seamless and (crucially) tailored to their needs. We know consumers want a more personalised experience from hospitality venues and offering customers a breadth of choice when it comes to paying the bill is sure to be a large part of that as the technology becomes even more mainstream.
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Webinar | The future of bookings & how to drive sales
In this latest bitesize webinar Olivia FitzGerald, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Zonal, and Amber Staynings, CEO and Founder at strategic sales & marketing experts Bums on Seats, explore how consumer booking behaviour has changed and how social media now plays a vital role in generating bookings, the importance of creating a frictionless experience for customers, and tips for operators on how to capitalise on current consumer trends to drive sales.
Watch this webinar for insights including:
- How to leverage consumer demand for convenience to generate bookings.
- Consumers are making decisions based on what they see on social media.
- The Rise of Gen Z.
- The use of social media to book and how this impacts bookings and sales across the entire sector.
- Competitive Socialising and experience led occasions.
